Cost planning for construction financing - how specific does it need to be?

1 million only for the house?

I just find it sensible to set the maximum financeable budget for the financing, and you have to manage with that..... it’s also clear that with that budget I can’t get every imaginable luxury. Anthracite clinker look, etc.

No... of course not :) 1 million including expensive land (starting with a 3), ancillary construction costs, expensive kitchen, outdoor area, solid garage, and so on...

If you spend almost €700,000 (getting more expensive all the time) just to have a plot of land "for now," then I find about €450,000 for a 200m² house rather tight. That probably sounds decadent to many now, since you can certainly get a house for that. However, the ratio no longer seems right to me if you spend about 1.5 times as much on "a piece of meadow" as on the house built on it.

If you spend almost €700,000 (it keeps getting more expensive) just to have a plot of land "first," then I find about €450,000 for a 200m² house rather tight. This probably sounds decadent to many now, as you will certainly get a house for that. However, for me, the ratio no longer makes sense when you spend about 1.5 times as much for "a piece of meadow" as for the house on it.

I agree with that if the plot costs a few hundred thousand and the house then "only" 200..300k. BUT for €450k you can get a very nice 200 sqm no matter whether the plot costs €700k or €2 million. If I now buy a plot for €2 million because it’s the last one at Lake Starnberg, but I only need 130 sqm (because I’m already 60) and I don’t need golden faucets and a pool at that age anymore... why should I then build a €2 million villa on it? Do you understand what I mean? Beyond a certain range, the ratio doesn't matter anymore. In our area, plots are all around €250-400k and most houses are probably between €500k and well over €1 million. There are only a few exceptions downwards (small run-of-the-mill Town & Country house on expensive land is very strange in my opinion) and really massive houses for well over a million (I know the price because it is also from our architect).

I agree with that, if the plot costs a few hundred thousand and the house then "only" 200..300k. BUT for 450k you can already get a very nice 200 sqm regardless of whether the plot costs 700k or 2 million. If I now buy a plot for 2 million because it is the last one at Lake Starnberg, but I only need 130 sqm (because I am already 60) and I don't need golden faucets and a pool at that age anymore.....why should I then build a 2 million villa on it? :) You know what I mean? Beyond a certain point the ratio no longer matters. In our area, plots are all around 250-400k and most houses are probably between 500 and over 1 million. There are only a few exceptions downward (small 0815 Town & Country house on expensive plot.. I find that very strange) and really huge houses well over a million (I know the price because it is also from our architect) :)

Surely there are exceptions. However, even in your example, the houses cost about twice as much as the plot. In the case of the original poster, it is rather the other way around. I also wrote that you can definitely get a nice house for 450k, but it should not be a small bungalow, rather a fairly large house. And if I spend well over half a million on the plot, I find about 2200.-€ / sqm for the house rather little, as you yourself have noticed.

: Here in the Cologne area, you won’t get anything else if you want to live in a location that is good for families. And every budget is limited then. You can’t do anything about the land prices. You can only influence the house and its costs. I have actually only searched in the city of Cologne so far and have now also expanded to the surrounding area. The plot here is a bit outside of Cologne.

And going even further out, just so the ratio of land to house fits better, I don’t see the point. Travel time is lifetime. And I don’t have a nine-to-five job; every fifteen minutes of travel time counts for me. I am already at 25 minutes.

Ok, that is already difficult. Unfortunately, it is hard to see from the photos what condition the house is still in. It doesn't look that bad yet anyway, so in this case you are paying for a house that definitely still has some value, and you have to pay demolition costs on top of that. That makes the whole thing more expensive by an easily six-figure sum. And of course, driving longer than half an hour eventually isn't nice anymore. I was also in Cologne the other day, rush hour traffic is simply lousy...